Amanda Knox feared attacks and accusations on return to Italy

Image copyrightEPAImage caption Amanda Knox said she still loved Italy, even after what it had done to her

Amanda Knox has spoken of the pain of being tried by the media over the murder of her friend, British student Meredith Kercher, in Italy in 2007.

The American told the Criminal Justice Festival in Modena that she feared being attacked and even charged again.

It is Ms Knox’s first trip to Italy since being cleared of the murder after four years in jail.

Looking distressed and bursting into tears, she decried a system that was fed by “the fantasy of tabloids”.

Who is Amanda Knox? Who was Meredith Kercher?

Amanda Knox, from Seattle in the US, and Meredith Kercher, from Surrey in the UK, were both language exchange students sharing a house in the university town of Perugia.

Image copyrightPAImage caption Meredith Kercher was a student at Leeds University

Alongside her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, Ms Knox was arrested on suspicion of murdering Ms Kercher, 21, who was found dead in their house. Her throat had been cut and she had been sexually assaulted.

Having been found guilty, Ms Knox served four years in an Italian prison before she and Mr Sollecito were acquitted through an appeal. She returned home to Seattle in 2011.

Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede is currently serving a 16-year sentence for Ms Kercher’s murder after his fingerprints were found at the scene.

The court ruled that he did not act alone, but after Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito were acquitted no other accomplices were convicted.

What did Knox tell participants at the event?

The festival, which will run from June 13 to 15, is organised by the Italy Innocence Project and the Camera Penale di Modena, an association of lawyers.

Ms Knox, now 31, said many people had thought she was crazy to return.

“Today I fear being harassed, laughed at and framed – and I fear that new charges may be brought,” she said before proceeding to deny again any role in Ms Kercher’s murder.

The media, Ms Knox said had “contaminated the inquiry”.

“It was impossible to have a fair process. Public opinion is not accountable to anyone, there are no rules – only that sensationalism wins: in the court of public opinion, you are not a human being, but a consumer item.”

Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption In 2014, the Kercher family said they were “still on a journey to truth”

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The National Crime Agency is investigating allegations of non-familial historic child sex abuse in Rotherham Forty people are being investigated over child sex abuse dating back 20 years in Rotherham. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said 38 men and two women had been arrested or interviewed by appointment over […]